Tuesday, October 12, 2010

well that was clever

Yesterday Bugsy did his normal nuisance behavior at about 3pm desperate to get my attention.
When he does this and I have the time, I grab the clicker & some Charlie Bear treats and do a few minutes of training.

I had a hide-a-gingerbread toy (its a house with three small toys that go inside the house) and his intellibone toy. The latter is a center piece with five rings that go over the center and the dog must remove the rings.

He does both of these very quickly so to make it a bit more interesting I decided to toss the small gingerbread toys around the room after he removed them and told him to 'bring it'. 'Bring it' is a term we use in various situations but not in this context prior to yesterday.

By using the clicker I got him to bring me one of the gingerbread toys, for this he got a charlie bear treat. Then something amazing happened - amazing to me anyway - he collected the two remaining toys and brought them to me - not one at a time. For this he got a higher value treat (Zuke's)

We then moved on to the intellibone. First I had him remove the rings for which he received a treat, then I tossed the five rings around the room and told him to 'bring it'.

He brought me the first ring - earned a charlie bear
Then he brought me THREE rings! - earned a few charlie bear treats
Then he brought me the last ring and the center piece to earn the Zuke's treat.

I don't know enough about dogs to know if this is unusual behavior but it sure impressed me.

I did the intellibone with him a few more times and each time he at times brought a single ring and others brought 2-3 rings.

I admit I thought this was way cool

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